Metadish, Fresh from NYC

In 1993 Lillo Brancato Jr. was a complete unknown in the acting world.  Brancato was discovered on New York beach by a casting director who was impressed with his impressions of DeNiro and Pesci.  Brancato was cast to star alongside Robert DeNiro in DeNiro’s directing debut, "A Bronx Tale". His performance was critically acclaimed, he was quite literally, living the dream.

After "A Bronx Tale" Brancato appeared in a dozen or more fairly decent films and in 1999 landed a recurring role on the "Sopranos", where he was eventually whacked by Tony Soprano in one of the series’ most talked about
offings.  The Bevilacqua murder.

But on Saturday, the actor was far from the bright lights and red
carpets of Hollywood. Instead, police said, he was breaking into a
vacant house with another man when a gunfight erupted. An off-duty
police officer who responded was killed, and Brancato, who police said
was unarmed, was in critical condition after being shot twice.

Brancato had a previous run in with the law when cops pulled him over in Yonkers and found four bags of heroin on him.

Cop-shoot suspect an actor with role in ‘The Sopranos’ [Daily News]
Shooting suspect was once a rising star [Boston Globe]

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